Complaint Review: Escape Limo Bus - San Diego California

This is the most unprofessional company that I have encountered on the west coast so far. The only thing I have to say good about the company is that the driver was a nice guy. As far as management, forget about it, completely incompetent and unprofessional. We booked a trip with this company on a referral from a larger limo bus company in San Diego (which we usually use, but they were all booked up for the weekend we wanted). At first, this woman Karen (who I think is the owner, but she wont admit to it), quoted me $500 for 6 hours, this meaning $100 an hr and we get 1 free hour for booking 5 hrs. The day of the trip comes and the driver etches my card into a credit slip, doesnt show me any recipt or anything at this time. I assume they do this in case we decide we want the bus longer and so on. Right now im assuming we are charged $500 for the 6 hrs.

When booking, we had a choice of crystal glasses or plastic. Its a $5 per glass fee or something if the crystal breaks (probably not real crystal, but thats besides the point) so I choose plastic. Well to prove the incompetence of Karen, we get on the bus and the champgne glasses are not the palstic I requested, but "crystal", so am I to be responsible if one breaks now... im sure if it wa up to Esacpe, of course I would be. Luckily they all stayed intact, no broken glass.

Im going to nitpick here since they are no cooperating. Now I expect if we are paying $100/ hr for a service it should be up to par. The bus had two TV's in it, one of them didnt turn on and the other was fuzzy and jumpy the whole time. We didnt really need the TV but its just to prove my point again, that they are incompetent and low class. Now here is the kicker, upon our arrival to Temecula, after our first stop, the door of the bus would not close, which is a mechanical door. Inorder for the driver to take us to our next destination and make it safe for everyone, we had to use a bungy cord from one of our friend who drove and met us in Temecula, if we did not have this the door would be swinging opne then whole time and would have posed a danger to the passengers. In that case, Escape would have had to send another bus or set of limos to Temecula to accomdate the rest of out trip, thus costing them alot of money. So in light of all of this, the driver tells us that we will not have to pay for any time we go over since the bus broke (and I figure since we fixed it they should be paying us, but I'll accept the no extra charge).

So we get back from our trip and everyone has give the driver cash for a tip and he has me sign a form and then folds it over and shows me the cost... $740. Now take in to account I have been wine tasting and Im a little fuzzy, so I say to him "wait, im not authorizing that charge, they quoted me for 5hrs and on the form it says six" So they are charging me $600 plus $140 gratuity (we only requested 5 hrs ($500 with a sixth hr free) and any overtime was to be credited because of the broken door) We got the bus a 11am and we were back by 7:30pm. The extra hr and a half should have been the credit for the broken door. And the $140 was given to the driver in cash so we were charged twice for a tip. This was out of the drivers hands and he told me they will fix it at the office so I called Karen to have this all worked out.

Karen tells me that she is not the owner and that they cannot charge my credit card back and that the owner will have to authorize a check to be sent to me. Why? I have no idea. But I say OK and ill wait for the owner to call me. Four days pass and I call Karen back, she gives me some story that the owner had surgery and cant get to any business right now. I am nice and I say ok have her call me when she is better. A few more days go by, no call, so I call back, same story, my girlfriend calls also, same story, this goes on for about two weeks until Karen decides to tell my girlfiend that she will authorize a credit for $120 and fax me an authorization but that is all she can do unitl the owner gets back. My girlfriend agrees to this and I wait for a fax or credit. Nothing. So I call back and this time Karen tells me that the owner will call me back in 20 mins. No call.

My girlfriend calls again and Karen tells her to have me take it up with my credit card company and hangs up on her. Ive decided to take it up with my CC company and request all my money back. All we wanted was the $240 we were overcharged, I think that is fair and worth the repuation and future business for this company. If you do live in San Diego (or visit) and you are thinking about using a limo bus company..DO NOT USE ESCAPE LIMO BUS!! THEY ARE LOW CLASS!! THEY ARE UNPROFESSIONAL AND THEY LIE!!

Chris

san diego, California
U.S.A.